Where to find funny next week
Sunday: We do have a soft spot for Storytellers' Club: down at the Pleasance, it seems the perfect end-of-Sunday-when-it's-a-bit-nippy-out kind of show. This time there are tales of imperfect love from Robin and Partridge, Meryl O'Rourke, Danielle Ward, Chris Coltrane and your lovely host Sarah Bennetto (8pm, £8 / £6).
Monday: We'll shortly bring you a review of Adam Riches's Edinburgh winning show (pictured), now at the Soho Theatre for a month (7.30pm, £10-£20). We saw it in preview and laughed so hard our faces hurt. If it's got better, we're all in danger of dying. The run starts tonight. Beg, borrow, steal or buy a ticket.
Tuesday: If you're stuck for original ideas for Valentine's Day (god, no more roses and chocolates) head for the Ambassadors Theatre and Fitzrovia Radio Hour (8pm, £25). This hit spoof of the early days of radio is usually very tough to get a ticket for, so take advantage of the big venue (or the three other dates if you have dinner plans. Seriously, nowhere with a violin player).
Wednesday: The N20 Comedy Festival starts tonight at the Battersea Arts Centre, with a work-in-progress from sketch group Pappy's (8pm, £10 / £8) and a best-of from New Born Comedy team Cariad Lloyd, Pippa Evans, Ruth Bratt and Lucy Trodd (10pm, £10 / £8). If you want to know more, we wrote about the festival a couple of weeks ago (where have you been?).
Thursday: If you enjoyed Friday Night Dinner you might be interested to know that Tom Rosenthal (the one that isn't the one off The Inbetweeners) has a new show, and that you can see it at the Hen and Chickens Theatre in Islington tonight (9.30pm, £6). If you're heading that way you could aim to arrive a bit earlier and see Rachel Stubbings (7.30pm, £6.50) solve people's problems, a bit like this:
Friday: There's another chance to see Rachel Stubbings at Forgery Club's second birthday at Deansways on Pollard Row (7.30pm, £7 / £10), where she's hosting alongside Luke McQueen. Huge line-up of sketch, character and musical comedy acts, including Tom Webb, Steve Pretty, Bob and Jim, Rufus Jones and Alex Kirk, Gemma Whelan (appearing as Chastity Butterworth) and Nathaniel Tapley.
Saturday: Daniel Sloss – painfully young and successful – is trying out new material at the Soho Theatre this week. Tonight's the last night, so he's had a few days to do some gag-weeding (7.15pm, £15 / £12.50).
Tip us off to intelligent, alternative, friendly comedy gigs, clubs and shows around London: [email protected].
